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Hekkia
Hekkia, officially the Gurudom of Hekkia '(Eastonian: ''Gurudömet Hekkien; Therionese: Gurutum Hekkien), is a member state of the South Severian Community alongside Therion and Suid. Located on the coast of the Black Kelp Bay it stretches into the deep southwestern icelands of Outer Hekkia, bordering Therion to the east and the Ottilian mountains to the northwest. The modern state was formed by New Iotanian colonists of primarily Eastonian origin in the 1st decade CE, but the icelands of Outer Hekkia have been inhabited by Daelic tribes for centuries prior. 2 CE is traditionally seen as the year Hekkia declared independence from the Eastonian Federation with the introduction of the nation's first constitution. Etymology The name Hekkia comes from the Eastonian word hekki, which originated in New Gurrinean bricklayer slang meaning 'hello'. During the New Iotanian epoch, hekki and the phrase hekki tehere became universal greetings used in both formal and informal contexts aswell as between people of different nationalities and socio-political rank in the world. This connotation of comradeship and equality in one simple word was an inspiration when the Eastonian colonists in Akzeleå named the land they had settled - the land of hekki. History Reign of Guru Zerestra I (2 BCE - 2 CE) The first group of colonists sent by the Eastonians under the scope of Project Utopia, a joint colonization effort by the Eastonian and Reuselerrian governments, left New Iotania in 2 BCE, selected as a cross section of the Eastonian population including people from all states of the federation. This fleet met up with its Reuselerrian counterpart in Centralia where a joint fleet was formed to take them to designated colonization sites in New Iotania, landing on the shores of Black Kelp Bay a few months later where the groups split into two again. The Eastonian colonists established the harbor of Akzeleå at the mouth of the Akzelii river, named after Eastonian president Akzelius Gurra, on the southwest shore of Black Kelp Bay. Leading the expedition was Eastonian Air Force captain Zerestra, heir to the Westonian fast fruit franchise Guru Gurra and known to the general public as celebrity yoga teacher Guru Zerestra. As Akzeleå developed into a settlement independent of Eastonian authority a citizens' council was formed to govern it in a democratic fashion, and this clashed with the military hierarchy that had been enforced during the voyage to support Zerestra's command. This power struggle eventually forced Zerestra to make some concessions by delegating matters of domestic interest to the council while still retaining full control of foreign affairs. In the spring of 2 CE, tragedy struck the bourgening nation with the death of Guru Zerestra who was attacked by hostile wildlife while farming kelp for a construction project. Confusion regarding the order of succession for colonial leadership prompted a constitutional convention which established Hekkia as an independent democratic state with a Guru elected for life by the people to the position of head of state. Reign of Guru Zerestra II (2 - 3 CE) Guru Zerestra was succeeded as head of state by council leader Kim Moiligh who took the name Zerestra II in honor of their predecessor, establishing a tradition of regnal names for Hekkian gurus. During their reign, Hekkian and Therionese representatives met to negotiate and sign the Articles of Confederation which would form the basis of the new South Severian Confederation, a political union of the two colonist states. Guru Zerestra II's reign would come to be short as they drowned in 3 CE during a joint Hekkian-Therionese expedition to excavate a shipwreck in the western Kelp Sea, but is remembered to this day as a leading force for South Severian unity. Reign of Guru Zerestra III (3 - 39 CE) Following in the footsteps of Kim Moiligh, the next Guru of Hekkia assumed the regnal name Guru Zerestra III. Being a scholar in ancient Peace and Love philosophy, it was their personal belief that all power should lie with the people and during the early years of their reign a system of parliamentary supremacy was slowly established as Guru Zerestra III took on a more representative and ceremonial leadership role while handing over responsibilites formerly reserved for the head of state to the citizens' council. With more settlers arriving from New Iotania and Centralia during this time, population growth became an obstacle to the direct democratic functions of the citizens' council and in 5 CE, Hekkia reformed into a representative democracy as the Old Lagting building was constructed in Akzeleå to house an elected legislative assembly. Orkidéa Kaupmann lead a majority faction in the new parliament calling themselves the Akzeleå List, which would later become an established political party, and was as such appointed the first President of Hekkia with a platform of transforming Akzeleå into a thriving city-state. Hekkia experienced rapid economic growth in the following years and it didn't take long to go from using primitive stone tools to once again developing advanced diamond technology that had been lost in the migration from New Iotania. During this time period, Hekkia's first political parties formed: the Akzeleå List, who supported the Kaupmann government's policies, aswell as two opposition parties: the egalitarianist Peace and Love Party and the industrialist Union of Miners and Merchants, a coalition of trade union representatives and self-employed entrepreneurs. Towards the later years of Kaupmann's term, a policy that would come to be known as "skyscraper subsidies" was introduced to encourage the construction of new multi-story buildings in Akzeleå as a way to spur development. While many new projects were started, many of them grinded to a halt as the result of a lack of some basic materials such as granite and dried kelp. Running up to the election in 11 CE, protests were arranged in Akzeleå adressing the perceived inaction of the Kaupmann government in the face of this economic stagnation. The Akzeleå List would come to lose their majority in the Legislative Assembly in 11 CE, with the Peace and Love Party winning a plurality of the seats and their leader Fredryk Paanz-Gurra becoming Hekkia's second president. In the aftermath of losing the election and waning public support for her policies, Orkidéa Kaupmann stepped down from her leadership position within the Akzeleå List and her replacement Gillian Kåreus assumed the role as Leader of the Opposition. During Paanz-Gurra's time in office a new netherport was constructed in Hellstrand south of Akzeleå which increased Hekkia's connectivity with the outside world and lead to an economic boost as traders from far away places such as Haghole visited Hekkia for the first time. The Peace and Love government also financed a suburban housing program to combat homelessness but was destabilized by the defection of member of parliament Alma d'Elerria who formed a new party, the eco-egalitarianist Llamaist Initiative with radical environmentalist views and a more isolationist trade policy. The election to the Legislative Assembly in 17 CE was a devastating loss for the Peace and Love Party who were reduced to only 2 seats in the chamber, and Paanz-Gurra was succeeded as President by Gillian Kåreus of the Akzeleå List. The early 20s were a period of economic and political stability in Hekkia during which Minister of Defence, Infrastructure and Immigration Grünette Cheval initiated extensive infrastructure projects in cooperation with the Therionese government. These included plans for a South Severian high system and a passenger rail line connecting Akzeleå to the Therionese cities of Wollbrück and Viviensmund which opened in 22 CE. Kåreus was reelected following the 23 CE parliamentary election, backed in parliament by a supermajority of Akzeleå List representatives as the result of a landslide victory. Her second term in office was marked by a world economy in recession and while Hekkia remained one of the most productive nations in Severia, development did not reach the levels of previous decades despite a government supermajority to implement new economic policies. Major legislation passed in the late 20s included the liberalization of the construction industry by lifting restrictions for private developers on the real estate market that had been in place since the failure of skyscraper subsidies, leading to resumed construction on long abandoned projects such as the Kaupmann Tower in downtown Akzeleå. Despite backlash against the perceived undemocratic nature of the Akzeleå List's landslide victory in 23 CE from the opposition both within and outside parliament, the Kåreus government remained intact in 29 CE with a comfortable majority of 15 seats in the Legislative Assembly following the election. Over the next six years, Hekkia accessed the terracotta markets of Tirsych which stabilized the effects of declining production in domestic mines. A constitutional convention called by Guru Zerestra III in 32 CE mostly confirmed the status quo of Hekkian legislation but also introduced major election reform with delegates passing initiatives such as proportional representation in the Legislative Assembly and increased term lengths for elected representatives from 6 to 8 years. The parliamentary election of 35 CE was the first one held under the new consitution and it was a victory for the Union of the Radical Centre whose leader Clara Björk was elected President, forming a coalition with the Akzeleå List to ensure a majority in parliament. This was a controversial move within her own party as the Akzeleå List had voted against them on major issues like election reform and steps taken towards closer integration with Therion at the constitutional convention. During the early years of Clara Björk's presidency, the Hekkian government strengthened its position in the eastern mesa by establishing an official consulate and trade office to oversee the terracotta trade, with the goal of negotiating entry into the Tirsych trade agreement signed by Therion and Red Pepperland. In 39 CE, Guru Zerestra III died from the complications of severe burn damage incurred when accidentally falling into a pool of lava while visiting a deep-level mine in eastern Hekkia. First Interim Period (39 - 43 CE) In accordance with the Hekkian constitution, Fredryk Paanz-Gurra was sworn in as Acting Guru in his capacity as the longest-serving member of the Legislative Assembly at the time. His time in the office was expected to be brief and temporary but due to bureaucratic obstacles and resistance from the republican majority in parliament, the process to hold an election to appoint Zerestra III's successor was drawn out and Hekkia entered an interim period of constitutional uncertainty. The 43 CE election to the Legislative Assembly lead to a shift in Hekkian politics as the Peace and Love Party once again became largest party in the chamber. PLP leader Martin Liebe was elected president following the resignation of Clara Björk and his new government made it a priority to restore the Gurudom to normalcy. Reign of Guru Ottilia (43 - 55 CE) An election to the guruship was held later the same year where Hekkian master architect Sara Silverståhl was appointed as Guru Zerestra III's successor after winning 60% of the votes, and sworn in by the name Guru Ottilia. The mid-40s saw the advent of a Hekkian monopoly on quartz products in Severia with Hekkian corporations extracting large quantities of quartz from the nether. This prompted some calls for concern by environmentalist groups at home but due to the general isolation of South Severia in the wake of the 4-year interim period in Hekkia and Lena Meyer's rise to power in Therion it went on largely unnoticed by foreign governments. Plans for a new suburb in the Hekkian valley south of Lake Gurra surfaced during the Liebe years, and the Peace and Love government sponsored the construction of a new stadium and the extension of the South Severian commuter rail system with a new station at Hekkiadal. Overall, the 40s were a cultural renaissance in Hekkia with the founding of new temples, the creation of a national spleef team and an influx of Panzerian refugees from Centralia. Military expeditions were lead into the deep south aswell where Hekkia made contact with native Daelic tribes in the icelands and along the southern coast of the continent. In 49 CE, Hekkia ratified an amendment to the Articles of Confederation following negotiations with Therion which established a joint South Severian central government in charge of national defense and foreign affairs, with former Hekkian president Clara Björk taking office as the first President of the Confederation. Martin Liebe was re-elected President by the Legislative Assembly following the election in 51 CE, but this time as part of a majority coalition with the Union of the Radical Centre. This second Liebe government started negotiating closer economic integration with Therion but was distracted by growing domestic unrest at the turn of the decade. A general strike broke out in Hekkia as a reaction to rising food prices due to a shift in Therionese agricultural production, which in turn hit the Hekkian markets hard with minerals such as iron becoming increasingly more scarce to come around when mines closed down due to a lack of workers. At the height of an economic crisis Guru Ottilia died in 55 CE, the circumstances of her death still uncertain since records of the incident, which occured during a Hekkian military expedition, remain sealed by the Confederate Defence Forces citing reasons of national security. Second Interim Period (55 - 56 CE) An election to the guruship was swiftly called for by the State Electoral Commission to avoid a repeat of the interim period following Guru Zerestra III's death, with the goal of appointing a new Guru by the end of the year. Hence no Acting Guru was appointed and the office was left vacant. However, on election night a whistleblower working for lobbyist group closely affiliated with one of the campaigns admitted to election tampering. A drawn-out case in the Hekkian courts over the following year eventually invalidated the vote and under public pressure, the Liebe government passed a new election law putting in place procedures to prevent voter fraud, including but not limited to the ban of strawpoll ballot boxes - a kind that had been used in the fraudulent election. In the fall of 56 CE, the State Electoral Commission called for a new election to the guruship where a candidate endorsed by the Holy Church of Peace and Love narrowly beat the Neo-Ngoiist-backed candidate by winning the support from Hekkia's Gynepagan community. They took office later that year as Guru Zerestra IV, ending the vacancy. Reign of Guru Zerestra IV (56 - 80 CE) The domestic situation stabilized towards the middle of the decade when the general strike ended in 57 CE after an agreement was reached between the State Mining Board and the unions ensuring better safety regulations and higher wages for miners. Investments in Hekkia's manufacturing industry by Therionese bankers boosted the economy with the development of new tool prototypes for both military and civilian use by South Severian tech company Haxxon, and a simultaneous upswing in the fishing sector also made Hekkia less dependent on agricultural imports, solving the overhanging food crisis. Martin Liebe's presidency was abruptly ended in 58 CE when he was assassinated while visiting a construction site in Akzeleå, shot dead by a skeleton sniper with ties to the War and Hate terrorist network. Radical Centre leader Klapaucius Lode was sworn in as Acting President to serve the remainder of the term, overseeing the establishment of Akzeleå as the de facto legislative capital of the South Severian Confederation by opening up office space in Akzeleå's Kaupmann District for the Confederate Council. The centre-left coalition, and the Peace and Love Party especially, lost their ground in the following year's parliamentary election and Akzeleå List leader Sigrun Kola was elected President in an uncertain parliamentary situation, forming a minority government after reaching a confidence and supply agreement with the socialist Hekkian Workers' Party outlining plans for a referendum on the status of Hekkian membership in the South Severian Confederation. In 60 CE, the so called "Hexit" referendum was held and with the exception of one district in downtown Akzeleå and the sparsely populated Outer Hekkia constituency, most Hekkians voted for staying in the confederation with 56.3% of voters opting for the "Remain" option on the ballot. Kola nearly lost her presidency in the wake of the referendum as the Llamaist group in parliament called for a vote of no confidence but through securing a coalition with the Peace and Love Party she remained in office. The 60s would come to be a stable decade both economically and politically despite the lack of a parliamentary majority government, with an upswing in the domestic manufacturing industry and the introduction of wide-ranging labor reform including but not limited to a legally mandated 4-hour work day for government employees and a raise of the universal minimum wage. The unorthodox AKL-PLP coalition also initiated Plan Corbusier, a massive urban housing program in Akzeleå's Kaupmann District. Hekkian politics took a new turn in 67 CE with the election of Radical Centrist president Björn Roos who initiated a series of neoliberal reforms such as privatizing Hekkia's state-owned real estate development company Kaupmann Construction & Development. Major infrastructure projects saw daylight during his time in office with the most prominent being the Akzeleå Metro, a high-speed rail connecting northwestern Akzeleå to the commuter rail system in Hekkiadal using new blue ice hyperloop technology developed by Haxxon Inc. Boosted by the success of their new innovation, Haxxon bought the abandoned Kaupmann Tower, Hekkia's oldest skyscraper, and renovated it to become their local headquarters in the state. Hekkia experienced a population boom during the second half of the 60s, with a 50% increase in population figures in the six years from 65 to 70 CE. Björn Roos was reelected President in 73 CE and during his second term in office the Legislative Assembly passed a constitutional amendment which shortened term lengths for elected government officials to 8 years, formalized a Supreme Court of Hekkia as the highest instance of the state's judicial system, and introduced Therionese as an official language of the state alongside Eastonian and Iotanian. In 79 CE, Björn Roos was elected to a third term after forming a coalition with Green Democracy, and for the first time in Hekkian history environmental issues was brought to the front of the political scene with the establishment of a new Department of the Environment. Year of the Three Gurus (80 CE) In early 80 CE, Guru Zerestra IV announced they would abdicate the guruship to embark on a pilgrimage to the historical lands of Iotania. An election was called to appoint their successor where the two top candidates, Ines Gurra de Reus and Abigail Caesar, split the vote in a second round following the elimination of former PLP leader Per Silja. After a third and final recount both stood at 4,316 votes each and were declared co-Gurus of Hekkia. This was an unprecedented situation but a case brought before the Supreme Court declared it constitutional. The two gurus entered talks with President Roos and the parliamentary government and after due deliberation a new election for the guruship was scheduled later that year alongside a popular referendum on amending the constitution to define the guruship as a position held by a single person. The amendment was approved by an 80% majority of voters and in the simultaneous snap election Abigail Caesar emerged victorious as the Year of the Three Gurus was coming to an end. Reign of Guru Birgitta (81 - 100 CE) Abigail Caesar took office as Guru Birgitta in early 81 CE and became the first guru of native Severian descent, being the daughter of Calavarian immigrants, and also the first with a background in the Ngoi religious community. Concentrated efforts by the green-centrist government to promote rural development initiated the first serious efforts to colonize Outer Hekkia and leading this wave was the village of Birgitta, founded in 81 CE and named after the new guru by its residents. This lead to the establishment of domestic agricultural production with the cultivation of primarily beetroot and potato, competing with imports from Centralia and Red Pepperland which had previously dominated the South Severian food market. Alti Nöjd was elected President of Hekkia in 85 CE as the Radical Centrist candidate after Björn Roos announced he would not seek a fourth term, and the mid-80s saw great infrastructure investments with the expansion of the Akzeleå metro system, and an extension of the South Severian railroad to Birgitta in Outer Hekkia. When fascists overthrew the Therionese government in 88 CE, the Nöjd government was quick to respond with the full force of Hekkia's military backing the democratic resistance in Therion. While praised for his swift decision-making in the liberation of Wollbrück and Viviensmund, the transportation of TNT warheads to Akzeleå as a last line of defense was heavily critized by peace and love activists when it leaked to the press. Although such weapons were never used during the brief conflict, this sparked a popular movement for TNT disarmament in Hekkia backed in parliament by the Peace and Love Party whose leader Olof Paanz would go on to win the presidency in 91 CE. The 90s were a tranquil period in Hekkian history as no major events occured. While the Paanz government was instrumental in pushing for the establishment of a South Severian embassy in Centralia, their efforts towards TNT disarmament failed to pass the Confederate Council due to resistance from Hekkian liberals and the Therionese delegation at large. By 97 CE, the anti-war movement had faded somewhat and Jörgen Kå was elected president at the helm of a liberal coalition of the Akzeleå List and the Radical Centrists. His term in office oversaw massive investments in the state military with the construction of the Hexagon complex in Hekkiadal as a new headquarters for the Department of Defence, Infrastructure and Immigration. In 100 CE, Guru Birgitta was assassinated in downtown Akzeleå at a Birthday Parade held on the Guru's Official Birthday on 3 February. To promote stability and national unity in the wake of this attack, the major parties and religious organizations rallied behind a single candidate to take over the guruship: Major General Anna Joh who had lead the Hekkian forces during the liberation of Viviensmund and later held the position of Defence Minister in the Kå cabinet. Reign of Guru Johanna (100 CE - ) Anna Joh was sworn in as Guru Johanna on the 21 October 100, running unopposed in the election to appoint Birgitta's successor. She would come to be one of the most controversial Gurus of Hekkia by trying to bend the limits of her constitutional power in the first years of her reign such as sitting in as Speaker on parliamentary sessions, which by practice had been delegated to the most senior parliamentarian since the reign of Zerestra III, and bypassing immigration protocol by using her reserve powers to grant citizenship to nearly a thousand non-citizen permanent residents. By 103 CE, Guru Johanna's approval ratings had dived down to a level where around 50% of Hekkians stated they had "low" or "very low" confidence in her ability to lead the nation in various opinion polls. The question of whether Hekkia should become a republic was a hot topic in that year's parliamentary elections and the reelected Kå cabinet made it a priority to hold a referendum on the issue. The Hekkian republic referendum was held in the winter of 104 CE and while provisions to outright abolish the gurudom were rejected by over 60% of voters, a majority approved constitutional amendments limiting the extent of the Guru's power by establishing the speakership as an office independent of the head of state and introducing direct election of the three Confederate Council seats previously appointed by the Guru. Overall, the first decade of the second century was marked by a growth spurt as unfinished projects were completed, most notably the Corbusier housing project in northern Akzeleå which had been under construction for over 30 years. While financial markets cooled down due to a red scare caused by the communist government in neighboring Therion, making Hekkian investors wary of the formerly very attractive real estate market in Viviensmund, the domestic mining industry enjoyed a boom with raw mineral like diamond and quartz becoming sought after as more stable investment opportunities. The liberal government also oversaw the construction of the Guru Johanna Highway, a road going southwest from Birgitta as part of an infrastructure project aimed at connecting the outer provinces to Inner Hekkia. A major event in the later years of Jörgen Kå's presidency was the ratification of the Treaty of Viviensmund reforming the South Severian Confederation into a looser trade and military alliance that is today's South Severian Community. Following the general election in 109 CE, Gustaf Kvartz became the first Green Democrat to be elected President of Hekkia at the helm of a "Moderate Coalition" with the Akzeleå List and Peace and Love Party after the Radical Centre had opted to leave the liberal coalition. While their moderate agenda had major popular support, an economic recession at the turn of the decade and internal disagreement on how to pursue their development goals destabilized the partnership. The only major piece of legislation that was passed these years were the act establishing a devolved provincial assembly in Outer Hekkia, bringing its local government in line with that of the Inner Hekkian city councils. Leading up to the Third Concord negotiations in Therion, Kvartz made a public declaration in favor of leaving the South Severian Community which caused the Peace and Love Party to eventually withdraw from the government in May 113 CE and join the Radical Centre in opposition. Gustaf Kvartz remained in office for two more months until a successful motion of no confidence in July when independent liberal Alexandra Rider was elected to the presidency in his place. Alexandra Rider had the support of the centre-left opposition who became known as the July Coalition after forming a new bipartisan cabinet under the new president. They pursued a pro-Severia agenda of normalizing relations with Therion, which had continued to decline even after the Viviensmund Summit in 109 CE, and a more active foreign policy agenda which facilitated the opening of a Hekkian embassy in Centralia. Along with decreasing unemployment and moderate economic policies providing well-deserved stability to the financial markets, this platform made Alexandra Rider a popular leader and the July Coalition retained its parliamentary majority after the 115 CE elections. Government and politics Hekkia is a democratic state with a form of government based on the political traditions of the Eastonian Federation and late-day Reuselerria within the framework of a parliamentary constitutional theocracy. The Guru of Hekkia is a ceremonial head of state who is elected for life by the voting public as a symbol of national unity and the state's highest representative. The spiritual nature of this office and its traditional connection to Peace and Love religion in the early colonial days has established Hekkia as a nominal theocracy but there is no official state religion and the constitution guarantees freedom of religion for people of all faiths. Executive power lies primarily with the President of Hekkia as the head of government and their appointed cabinet. The President is elected by and responsible to the Legislative Assembly (Eastonian: Lagtinget; Therionese: Gesetzesversammlung), Hekkia's parliament with 32 elected members. Elections to the Legislative Assembly are conducted every six years using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation for allocating seats. A party must win 3% of the popular vote to be eligible for a seat. All Hekkian citizens over 18 years of age can vote in general elections. The judicial branch of Hekkia's government consists of twelve district courts at the local level, three provincial courts at the regional level and the Supreme Court (Eastonian: Högsta domstolen; Therionese: Oberste Gerichtshof) as the third and final instance. Cases are usually dealt with in the district and provincial courts, and leave of appeal to the Supreme Court is only granted if the case is of a constitutional nature or considered of interest as a precedent. The Supreme Court consists of five Justices who are appointed by the government, but the court as an institution is independent of parliament and the government is not able to interfere with the decisions of the court. Cultural matters pertaining to the Daelic minority in Hekkia are the responsibility of an independent Daelic Council (Western Daelic: Comhairle na nDael) with 10 elected members. To be eligible to vote in these elections one must identify as culturally or ethnically Daelic and fulfill at least one of three critieria: speak a Daelic language, have or have had a parent or grandparent who speak or spoke a Daelic language, or have or have had a parent or grandparent who is or was a registered voter with the Daelic Council. As a South Severian state, Hekkia is also governed by the provisions of the Viviensmund Treaty which outlines the nature of the political relationship between its member states aswell as certain basic rights and freedoms. The state is represented by 24 members on the South Severian Council of which 12 are appointed by the parliamentary government, 8 are allocated to the parliamentary opposition according to the size of their representation in the Legislative Assembly, 3 are directly elected by the voting public and 1 is appointed by the Daelic minority. List of Presidents Political parties The Legislative Assembly with its direct democratic roots was originally a non-partisan body, but with the introduction of a representative system parliamentary groups formed and these were later established as political parties. Five parties are represented in the legislative assembly today: the Akzeleå List, Green Democracy, the Hekkian Workers' Party, the Peace and Love Party and the Union of the Radical Centre. See List of political parties in Hekkia for more detailed information about the political parties. Administrative divisions Hekkia is a unitary state divided into four provinces. Akzeleå, Inner Hekkia and Outer Hekkia have local governments with devolved powers vested in a directly elected provincial council, whereas the Southwest Territories has a Governor appointed by the central government to oversee provincial administration. Hekkia-provinces5.png|Political map of Hekkia Hekkia-terrain2.png|Biome map of Hekkia Demographics Hekkia was initially settled by mostly ethnic Eastonian settlers, with Reusnesians and Panzerians being the largest minority groups. Native tribes inhabit the southwestern regions of Hekkia and has been largely left undisturbed. The 120 CE census puts the population of Hekkia at 749,591 individuals. Religion Hekkia is home to three major religious communities, the largest of which is the Holy Church of Peace and Love centered around the temple of the same name in Hekkiadal. Descended from the New Iotanian school of Peace and Love worship it was the de facto state religion of Hekkia in early decades but has since lost its influence in matters of the state. This has mostly been related to the increasingly ceremonial role of the Hekkian gurus, most of which have been members of the church. A prominent and diverse Gynepagan community also exists in Hekkia, with followers of several denominations ranging from the traditionalist Elerrian church to liberal Therionese churches and the Zerestianist cult. These groups together form the Gynepagan Federation of Hekkia, a politico-religious interest group gathering a majority of Hekkian Gynepagans except for a few fundamentalists who denounce it as heresy. The third largest religious group in Hekkia is the Ngoi church which has had an increasing presence in the state since the early 50s CE when the Order of St Rosalind established a new chapel in Akzeleå. The largely autonomous Hekkian chapter has branded itself as Neo-Ngoiist but theological analysis of their religious doctrine has determined it to be largely traditionalist in nature with the word choice primarily being a way to establish the church in modern society. Languages Hekkia has three official languages: Eastonian, Iotanian and Therionese. Eastonian is the primary national language and the native tongue of most Hekkians while Iotanian is an important trade language used to facilitate inter-ethnic communication. Therionese is a minor language in Hekkia but was elevated to official status in 77 CE by the Roos government. While not many speak it as their native tongue, it is an official language of the South Severian Community owing to its status in Therion and is often used as an alternative to Iotanian for a southern lingua franca. There are various minority languages present in the state which can be divided into two main groups: those brought over by non-Eastonian settlers from New Iotania and the native languages of immigrants from other Severian nations. The former category consists mainly of the Panzerian and Reusnesian languages, but while these are still alive in ethnic Panzerian and Reusnesian circles they are slowly decreasing in use as these groups tend to favor one of the official languages for everyday use. Other languages spoken by more recent arrivals are more widely used, including but not limited to Suidinese, High Severian and the native Daelic languages of southern Severia. Western Daelic (Daeilge) holds protected status as an officially recognized minority language. National symbols Flag The state flag of Hekkia is known as the Pink Ensign and features a pink field with the Eastonian cross flag in the canton (upper hoist quarter). The color pink is generally taken to symbolize the unity of Peace and Love as a simplification of the traditional rainbow banner, but it is not known why it was chosen in the first place. Some hold that it was Guru Zerestra I who had a vision of a pink banner flying over the Black Kelp Bay, while others think it was originally a red flag that simply faded over time. Anthem The Hekkian anthem "Sång till Södern" ("Song to the South") was written and composed by Hekkian musician Richard Gurra in 49 CE and first played at the inauguration of Clara Björk as President of the South Severian Confederation. Although originally intended as a pan-South Severian song of praise to the continent's natural beauty and the unity of the people, its original lyrics in the Eastonian language has made it an immensely more popular folk song in the confederation's western state and while not officially adopted as such it is now widely established as the national anthem of Hekkia. Category:Severia